Search for missing Lee County girl continues

Uribe Jiminez, the stepfather of Diana Alvarez, a 9-year-old San Carlos Park girl that went missing on Sunday, wipes away tears as waits in the yard of neighbors on Monday, May 30, 2016, in San Carlos Park. Law enforcement has not allowed the family access to their home due to an ongoing investigation. (Jack Hardman/The News-Press)

Family members of a 9-year-old south Lee County girl missing since Sunday morning are upset with the scope of the search and said they are not being allowed to contact the girl's parents.

The search was continuing late Sunday for the 9-year-old girl missing from her mobile home park since 2 a.m.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office issued a request Sunday morning asking for the public's help locating Diana Alvares. Later on Sunday the Florida Department of Law Enforcement also issued a missing child alert on Alvares.

On Monday morning, LCSO issued a statement saying no new information was available and deputies and searchers continue to investigate for clues and information. What is known as of Monday at 10:40 a.m. is the fact Alvares did not have any electronic devices with her, nor did she participate in social media sites according to the Lee County Sheriff's Office Digital Forensics Unit.

Nancy Martinez said her cousin Uribe Jiminez was married to the girl's mother, Rita Alvares.

The girl's biological father is not in the picture and Martinez said he is out of the country. "We've exhausted that option," she said of a possible abduction by the biological father.

Diana Alvarez is Hispanic, 4 feet, 4 inches, 95 pounds, with dark hair, brown eyes, and has two scars on one of her legs. She just celebrated her 9th birthday less than two weeks ago on May 17.

She was last seen wearing a unknown color shirt, blue bottoms, unknown shoes, and may be carrying a green blanket with flower print.

She was last seen at 2 a.m. at her residence, 3540 Unique Circle at the Sheltering Pines mobile home park, in the San Carlos Park area of south Lee County.

About a dozen of the manufactured homes were behind crime scene tape that cut off an entire section of Unique Circle.

Detectives with the Lee County Sheriff's Office at the scene declined to comment about the progress of the case. A K-9 search team was seen earlier in the day and around 10:30 p.m. Sunday a sheriff's officer helicopter was circling the community placing a spotlight in an area behind and west of the missing girl's home.

Shortly after 11:25 p.m. two tow trucks rolled up and through the crime scene tape, proceeding to the home of the missing girl. The trucks loaded and carried off a black sedan and a tan pickup.

Shortly thereafter a deputy removed crime scene tape, said the case was ongoing and left the scene. A cruiser remained at the girl's home, which remained cordoned off by crime tape.

Martinez returned to the development around 10 p.m. Sunday and talked with a deputy. She and about a dozen other family members were not allowed to go past the crime scene tape or to contact the girl's parents, she said.

"We are not being told why they are holding the parents," she said. She has not even been allowed to make phone contact, she said..

Martinez said Diana Alvarez was last seen by a sister when the sister went to the bathroom Sunday morning.

"She's 9, she wouldn't leave her bed at 2 a.m.," she said.

No search was allowed as well, Martinez said, because of sheriff's office "procedure," she said she was told.

'We have 80 people willing to search, we just have to call them," she said.

Additionally, she said, the sheriff's office told her that an Amber Alert is not warranted in this case because the little girl does not meet the qualifications.

Specifically, Martinez said, she said she was told that the Amber Alert was not issued because a car was not involved and it was not known if the girl was in danger.

Absent the search, Martinez said family members have distributed fliers from Fort Myers to Naples.

Scott Behrenwald's girlfriend and her mother live in one of the homes near the crime scene and he was sitting with friends in a home inside the cordoned off area.

"The search this morning was done just by us," he said. "I got here about 8:30 and saw all the cop cars around. We went walking around. Some of us went out and knocked on doors."

He added that deputies went around checking on homes where nobody was home.

Behrenwald said his girlfriend's kids play with the little girl all the time.

"She's a little sweet girl," he said of Alvarez. "I see her all the time."

Fliers with the girl's photos have been distributed around the south Lee County community where the mobile home park is located, off U.S. 41 near Sanibel Boulevard.

Lynda Van Bibber came to the crime scene around 9:30 p.m. after she said a family member called her.

"The family asked for a few people to come out but I want to talk to the deputies first," she said. After a few minute discussion with the deputies Van Bibber said they told her that the time was not right for a search.

"They said they were not at (that) point," she said, adding that the sheriff's office representatives told her that for a search they would call in cadets from the local safety academy.

Ryan Boone, who lives with his wife Kassie and their 4-year-old son at the front of the community about a half-block from the crime scene, said a deputy came to their home early Sunday and asked about the little girl.

"They searched my garage," he said.

Boone, who said he remembers seeing the little girl walking around from time to time, said the deputy issued no warning to him or told him to take any precautions.

"I want to know, have they looked at the cameras at Walgreens," he asked. "That's the only way they can see someone coming and going here."

He said he hasn't heard anything about what happened.

"I dealt with it this morning and then we went fishing," he said. "And it's still going on. It's still kind of scary."

Boone said it worries him that there's no information being released.

"If it was an abduction it could have been us," he said. "I hope they find her."

Anyone with information about the girl should contact the Lee County Sheriff's Office by calling 239-477-1000 or 911.